Barofsky said that while the TARP program that Congress passed amounts to $700 billion, the total federal government support since 2007 for the economy and the financial sector could reach a far higher figure of $23.7 trillion.

Goldman and these other banks forced the taxpayer to eat their bad bet - that is, their loss. That $13 billion was in fact unearned - they had no right to it, as AIG was in fact insolvent and they would have collected zero...

Federal authorities are investigating whether a group of Washington
area police officers took money to protect a high-stakes gambling ring
frequented by some of the region's most powerful drug dealers over the
past two years, according to internal police documents and law
enforcement sources.

The officers include five veterans in Prince George's County, a
District police official and a former D.C. Housing Authority officer.
Two under investigation have been spotted on police surveillance
outside gambling sites, including one providing security in tactical
gear. Witnesses have alleged that others wore police uniforms and drove
marked cruisers to gatherings. One was arrested in a police raid
outside a game with a handgun.

Great 3 part video produced to the NOFX song, The Decline. If you don't already know, NOFX is a political punk rock band. The video offers many great references illustrating why so much hate (or blowback) is directed at the US. After watching the video ask yourself, if we were in their position would we not react exactly the same?

"You can't have a bunch of bankers going to congress for example and saying, we can't audit the Fed, because if you audit the Fed we're going to crash the system so we're holding it hostage. You can't allow that"

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx
for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s
endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s president
flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that
included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors.

“One theme here is that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan really have emerged
as the winners, as the last of the survivors,” said Robert Reich. Both banks now stand astride post-bailout Wall Street, having benefited
from billions of dollars in taxpayer support and cheap government
financing to climb over banks that continue to struggle. They are
capitalizing on the turmoil in financial markets and their rivals’
weakness to pull in billions in trading profits.

Steve has a DUI and a bar fight under his belt all while being one of Jack's finest Phoenix cops. Steve is a classy guy - while serving in the honor guard and at another cops funeral he threatened to kill a fellow lieutenant. NICE! He's tried a few times to go back to Iraq (he's a Marine) and they won't take him, but the Phoenix PD keeps him. He also had to serve time in jail, but never told anyone in the PPD. We have blogged about him many times before.

When an Air Force command in north Florida sought new battlefield technologies, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) steered millions in federal dollars its way to hire defense contractors.

The research effort at the Pensacola Air Force base fell apart,
however, when investigators found evidence that it was used to
improperly pay a series of companies linked to Murtha. A handful of
defense firms were paid for work that was never done or not called for
in the contracts. Some of the companies involved, based in Wyoming,
Florida and Murtha's district in Pennsylvania, had hidden owners,
prosecutors allege; one was secretly owned by the Air Force official
who helped approve the payments.

A former Pennsylvania lawmaker who prosecutors said became "drunk with power" in his many years in the state Senate
was sentenced to less than 5 years in prison, a steep
departure down from what the judge was asked to impose for the
corruption conviction.

Democrats renew their calls for some kind of investigation and criticize former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Reporting from Washington -- Democratic lawmakers criticized former
Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday for allegedly ordering that a CIA
counter-terrorism program be kept secret from congressional leaders,
with two senators questioning the legality of such concealment.

A top Democrat called for an investigation. Republicans were far more circumspect, but some acknowledged the White House should have briefed Congress.

Exactly what the secret intelligence program was remained a mystery, but sources said the CIA had opened an internal inquiry.

It
is unclear how wide an investigation lawmakers would like to see, but
the latest controversy could fuel demands for an examination of the
CIA's relationship with Congress during the Bush administration.

Congressional Democrats -- in particular, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of

A group of doctors
in the UK are mounting a legal and political campaign to overturn the
suicide verdict in the death of a British doctor who was found dead
shortly after exposing falsehoods about the justification for the Iraq
war.

Merideth, you haven't changed your macro forecast one iota; you still expect much higher unemployment and yet you start talking about write-ups, issuing buy calls into stocks that have more than doubled in price with, zero fundamentals.

The death of Government scientist David Kelly returned to haunt Labour today as a group of doctors announced that they were mounting a legal challenge to overturn the finding of suicide.
Dr Kelly's body was found six years ago this week in woods close to his Oxfordshire home, shortly after he was exposed as the source of a BBC news report questioning the grounds for war in Iraq.
Unusually, no coroner's inquest

GS has special access inside the system from its status assisting the Working Group on Financial Markets (colloquially the Plunge Protection Team) created by Presidential Order two decades ago. GC also acts as Special Liquidity Provider for NYSE.

We are approaching a time in our country where people are
detained and forced to take chemical tests because they refuse to
answer police questions. This officer lied about smelling alcohol and
seeing red and watery eyes. He did this to compel a breathalyzer while
refusing to allow a blood test as required by law.

A new photo released on the fourth anniversary of the 7/7 attacks in London appears to contradict the government’s official story that Muslims with backpack bombs were responsible for the Tube and bus bombings which killed 52 people.

GS, through access to the system as a result of their special gov't perks, was/is able to read the data on trades before it's committed, and place their own buys or sells accordingly in that brief moment, thus allowing them ...

A U.S. bankruptcy judge refused on Tuesday to allow a group of
individuals claiming to have been harmed by General Motors Corp
vehicles to appeal directly to a U.S. federal appeals court against the
sale of the automaker's assets.

Judge Robert Gerber of federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan also
rejected a request by a group of asbestos claimants to stay the sale of
GM to a group led by the U.S. Treasury.

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should consider drafting a
second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects
because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too
small,” said Laura Tyson, an outside adviser to President
Barack Obama.

The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the
real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in
Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact
in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she
was speaking for herself and not the administration.

Tyson’s comments contrast with remarks made two days ago
by Vice President Joe Biden and fellow Obama adviser Austan
Goolsbee, who said it was premature to discuss crafting another
stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take
effect. The government is facing criticism that the first
package was rolled out too slowly and failed to stop
unemployment from soaring to the highest in almost 26 years.

This document presents a sealed complaint against military contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop
Grumman under the False Claims Act. According to the complaint, the companies fraudulently cut corners
in the construction of a number of Coast Guard boats, leaving them
unfit for operations.

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters
are not interested in the details of physical science. They are
interested in two things: political control over the general public and
the establishment of international socialism.

What bubble is up next for the Obama regime and the financial sector cronies who played such a huge role in financing both his and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns? Listen up, lefties: the scam is “green,” and known as Cap and Trade

WEAPONS inspector David Kelly was writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets before his ­mysterious death.
Following his death, his computers were seized and it is still not
known if any rough draft was discovered by investigators and, if so,
what happened to the material.